The former president of one of Pakistan’s most prominent banks gave up his fight against extradition, clearing the path for his return to Pakistan to face accusations that he stole $10.8 million from his bank.
Hamesh Khan’s extradition is now in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s hands after a federal judge in Alexandria concluded there was enough probable cause for the dual U.S.-Pakistani citizen to be handed over to Pakistani authorities.
Khan was taken into custody at his Washington U.S. Department of Agriculture office late last year. The arrest occurred just hours after news broke in the United States that five Washington-area men had been detained by Pakistani authorities for allegedly trying to join terrorist groups.
Khan’s attorney John Zwerling told The Examiner at the time of Khan’s arrest that he planned to fight the extradition. Zwerling sad Khan was an enemy of the current Pakistani government, not a criminal.
Khan’s accomplices in the alleged mortgage fraud scheme turned the details over to the Pakistani government more than two years ago, Zwerling said. He was prosecuted only when his ally President Pervez Musharraf’s political party lost in the March 2008 general election, he said.
“They were checking off which enemies they would get,” Zwerling said, “and they finally got to him.”
But Khan chose to forgo the extradition battle because “most if not all of the evidence he would present in support of his innocence would be ruled inadmissible,” Zwerling wrote in a recently filed court document.
If Clinton sends Khan back to Pakistan, his fight will move to Pakistan’s high court. News reports indicate he’ll face judges who are already irritated with his fleeing the country in May 2008, a month after Pakistan’s newly elected government began an investigation into Khan and the mortgages he allegedly gave out to fake people and companies.
Khan used his U.S. passport to flee Pakistan and moved to Northern Virginia. A USDA spokesman said he passed an FBI fingerprint test and was hired as a financial analyst in February 2009. Pakistani media reports indicate a warrant for Khan’s arrest was issued in the summer of 2009.
